20 20’s 75 gallon - update 11-09-2008

[tlef316]

beautiful tank. those background plants have filled in really well.

[20 20]

Thanks! Some plants are doing better than others, but overall I'm very pleased with it so far. A bunch of the HC got uprooted after I put 30 Amano shrimp in it, but what's left seems to be rooted nicely. The plants in the back right side are growing much slower than the rest (rotala sp. green, Bacopa Monneri), and I've got some bacopa carolina in the very back of the left side that had been growing fairly well but is now being completely outgrown by the Sunset Hygro and the Ludwigia arcuata, so I'm going to have to figure out something else to do this those plants. I also plan on getting more cardinals and rummy's, maybe some silver hatchets, and a few angels.

[markalot]

Of the 18, 6 are dead, I can find 9 live ones, and can't find three of them. Checked the water parameters:

Temp: 80
PH 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
Phosphate - .35
KH - 5
GH - 6

Isn't that Nitrate a bit high? I keep mine below 5 (for my red plants) but the way I understand it below 20 is ideal.

In my opinion with limited experience I would not introduce neons or cardinals to a tank less than 6 months old. There are all kind of 'cycles' going on in new tanks that these fish can't seem to handle.

I think your aquarium looks great by the way, natural looking.

[20 20]

Yeah, the nitrate was high. It's steadied at between 10 and 20, without dosing. After I introduced the first batch of cardinals, the tank went through a cycle, as I was getting nitrite readings. Never ammonia. So, I waited until the nitrate reading was zero, then waited another week before adding any more fish.

[20 20]

Small update. I now have a full fish load, and the plants are doing well for the most part. My ludwigia got very leggy, so I cut the tops off, got rid of the bottom part, and replanted the tops. So far so good. Amano's dug up quite a bit of my HC, I'm just letting the rest go and see what happens. Fish:

13 cardinals
10 rummy's
10 lemon tetras
6 angels
4 dwarf neon rainbows
5 oto's

[clwatkins10]

Nice! Great depth! I really like your tank

[CobraGuppy]

Awesome tank as always!

Jeez, is that e tennelus in the front right? I didn't know it got that tall lol.

[20 20]

Thanks for the comments! Yep, that's e tennelus. I didn't know it got that tall either, or I wouldn't have gotten it. It's kinda growing on me, though (no pun intended).

[lauraleellbp]

If it keeps getting taller, I suspect you may actually have E. angustifolius, not E. tenellus. Do the runners stay under the surface of the substrate, or are they on top and turn green?

Tank looks gorgeous!

[20 20]

On top and turning green.

[cah925]

very nice, hopefully that HC will fill in for you.

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by 20 20

On top and turning green.

Pretty sure then that you have E. angustifolius. How wide are the leaves?

[20 20]

Maybe 3/8 inch, fairly narrow.

[20 20]

Just looked up "Echinodorus Angustifolia" in the 'plant profiles', and that's not what I've got, if the picture is accurate. The Angustifolia is 'twisted', mine is not, in fact, it looks exactly like the picture of the tenellus.

[lauraleellbp]

No, you must have looked at E. angustifolius 'vesuvius'

Here's both in my tank:

E. angustifolius:
(from the top, 25" tall tank)


From the bottom, showing the green runners:


E. angustifolius 'vesuvius':



E. tenellus runners stay under the substrate, and therefore stay white.

There's at least 2 (maybe 4) varieties of E. tenellus, but none should get taller than 6-8" and their leaves shouldn't be broader than 3mm.